Heraklion, Crete, Greece - Day 3

We slept in a bit more on Saturday morning, packed up our luggage, and checked out of our hotel by 11:00am. A taxi met us outside our hotel, and we drove about 20 minutes back into the city of Heraklion. As soon as we arrived, we booked our tickets on the Minoan Lines ferry between Heraklion and Pireas, the port near Athens. As the ferry was not set to leave until later on that evening, we had the entire day to explore.

It was a very hot day already, so we began by walking through the city, where we stopped at one restaurant for ice cream, and a few other pubs for drinks. We also passed by the Church of St. Titus, and then made our way to the ferry, just so we knew where it was.

After finding the ferry, we made our way along the port in Heraklion, which was once again beautiful, with bright blue water, sailboats, and mountains stretching in the background. We made our way along the breakwater, and out to the ruins at the point, where we sat and watched a handful of fishermen for a while. Unfortunately, nothing was going on, so we continued on our way.

After spending hours near the harbor, we decided to go to the McDonald’s across the street to pick up some cheap food before the ferry ride, and to get out of the heat. Since it was air conditioned inside, we ended up staying there for a while and playing cards. About an hour before the ferry was set to leave, we walked down to the loading dock and boarded.

We walked around the ship for a while, and sat on one of the decks to play cards while we had a few drinks. We could see fish down below from the top deck of the ferry, and the view of the sunset was amazing.

The ferry finally left the dock, and we got ourselves settled in for the 9 hour ride to Pireas. It was weird seeing people sprawled out all over the floors and hallways in sleeping bags. It was tough to sleep, but it was beautiful outside, so I spent most of my time out on the upper deck. At one point, I even got to see dolphins or some type of large fish jumping next to the boat. It was too dark to tell for sure what they were, but it was still pretty neat.

Finally, I managed to fall asleep. When I woke up, I would be back in Athens, ready to explore the city.